Afraid of the Dark
by DanishGirl
Summary: [Complete] One shot: He never slept through the whole night, he feared to sleep. Yes, the boy who lived was afraid of the dark. Pathetic, eh?


**Summary:** He never slept through the whole night, he feared to sleep. Yes, the boy-who-lived was afraid of the dark. Pathetic, eh?

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the characters. They belong to J. K. Rowling. I only own the plot!

**A/N: **I know that I should be working on 'Bound to you', but as I have mentioned earlier, my old fics bore me to death - sorry! I will eventually update my other stories, and I promised that I'll finish them all when time is right (for me, not you). This little one-shot has been nagging me for weeks, and I finally decided to write it. I know it's not that long, but not all stories have to be novel-length, ay?

**AFRAID OF THE DARK**

Harry watched Hermione and Ron bickering in the common room, just like they always did. He chuckled when Ron started to get very red from embarrassment, because of something Hermione had said. Harry loved the days, but dreaded the nights. He would feel the darkness engulf him, and nightmares would haunt him all through the night. Nightmares of Sirius' dead, nightmares of the chamber of secret, nightmares of Cedric's dead, the philosopher stone, the graveyard, the Death Eaters and nightmares of his life in Privet Drive number 4.

He never slept through the whole night, he feared to sleep. Yes, the boy who lived was afraid of the dark. Pathetic, eh? He chuckled at his own stupidity. He could easily see the headlines of the Daily Prophet, "The-Boy-Who-Lived, a pathetic creature".

He got an odd look by Ron, who quickly asked, "What's so funny?" while slapping his worn History of Magic book together, looked happy to have an excuse to put the book away. Hermione just gave them a look which would have made McGonagall proud, heck, even Snape would have found the look worthy.

"Nothing, just a lame joke Dean told me a few days ago," said Harry, trying not to feel guilty when Ron looked a bit forlorn.

"Oh?" Said Hermione and looked slowly up from the book. "Why don't you share the joke then?"

Harry's eyes widen for a quick second. He felt like an animal caught in a trap, and that the hunters would kill him any minute. "I don't remember the point of the joke, so there's no reason to tell it," he finally said, and cringed when he realised how lame an excuse it was.

Hermione just nodded understandingly, giving him a small smile before finally saying, "I'm so tired." She rose from the chair and yawned. "I think I'll go to bed, see you in the morning boys."

"Uh-huh," said Ron, and yawned as well. "I think I'll follow Hermione's example and go to bed too. Are you coming Harry?"

"Eh, no, I have to finish my potion essay, you go to bed. I'll be up soon," he said. This was almost standard procedure. Ron would ask if he would come up too, and then he would come up with some last minute homework that he needed to check. Ron just nodded, looking concerned at him.

Harry sat in the chair, lifting his feet up in the chair and curled together, just watching the fire. He sat like that for hours and felt his eyes hurt a bit. He closed them, promising himself that he wouldn't sleep. But the cold feeling of his closed eyelids were like heaven towards his burning eyeballs. He felt tired, and then within a few seconds, darkness started to engulf him, making him jolt awake again. He glanced at the clock, noticing that he had been in the common room for quite a long time. It was already a quarter to five, meaning he had only one and a half hour until he was supposed to wake up in his bed looking relaxed and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes like the rest of his dorm mates would do.

He stretched and yawned before starting to get up from the comfy chair. He looked down at his potion essay that was due to tomor- today, it was soon dawn, meaning that a new day had already begun. The essay was actually quite good if he had to say so himself. He had used a lot of time and nights on it, making sure that he wouldn't fail in this subject.

He picked up the essay, and gently placed it in his bag. Then he gathered the rest of his stuff, before walking up to his bed. When he reached the door to the room, he walked on toes, determinate on not to wake up the others. They would just ask stupid questions, and he didn't felt like answering any of those – yet.

He murmured the spell that would change his clothes into his nightwear, a pair of boxer and an old T-shirt. Then he softly said the silence spell, so he wouldn't wake anybody up if he would be so reckless and actually fall asleep. He lay down on the bed, looking at the clock on his night table; it was now five in the morning. He looked at the ceiling, trying to clear his mind. But the dark ceiling was making him drowsier, so he turned his head and looked out of the window.

The stars was shinning bright, an unusually silver colour was displayed on the sky, the same colour as Malfoy's eyes. Yeah, that was it. The same colour as Malfoy's eyes. Malfoy had looked at him again today, but just as always he had tried to ignore it. Although he knew that Malfoy was probably just trying to pull another prank, he couldn't help feel that the blond looked like… Yeah, well. He didn't know… there was just something a bit weird about the Slytherin.

_"Do you hear me boy!" yelled the large man. The young boy walked back, afraid of the man. "I'm telling you, if you ever do that again you'll get the beating of your life!" And then he was hit across his face. The little boy whimpered, trying to hide, but no place could hide him from this man – his uncle. _

The man lifted the boy, holding his arms so tight that it would without a doubt show marks and bruises the next day.

"Please… I'm so sorry. I won't do it again, I swear," cried the youngster, looking at his uncle with pleading eyes, making the man grunt.

"Damn right you won't you little freak," he growled, and the boy watched the man's arm rise, as if in slow-motion. "You'll do as I say!"

"NO!" yelled Harry, waking up from his nightmare. He looked out through his curtain, seeing Ron and Seamus chatting.

'Thank god nobody heard me,' he thought, and muttered a sleepily 'good morning' to the two boys. Ron yawned and grinned sheepishly. Harry watched the others a few minutes before he decided to get ready himself. A new day had already begun, and he had potion first.

**FINISHED!**

**A/N:** So, did you like it? Like I wrote in the A/N at the top, this was only a one-shot. I'll probably make some more one-shots, seeing as I have a lot of ideas to stories but no patience whatsoever... lol.


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